Simon Says and The Card Concept

* I wanted to add the following edit to this post.  This will be my last week participating in the Challenges over at The Card Concept because I'll be joining the Design Team there starting April 12th!  I'm so excited!  

If you've visited my blog in the past month, then you will know that lately I am obsessed with the Simon Says Stamp Emma Background Stamp right now. This week's Simon Says Wednesday Challenge is "Anything Goes". Then when I saw the inspiration image for The Card Concept Challenge #70 - Purple Haze, I chose to use the color purple as my jumping off point for this Challenge. Pink and Purple are my two favorite colors (besides shiny and sparkly, of course).  My daughter even has a collection of Amethyst Glass and Black Amethyst Glass pieces that I got for her over the years while I was collecting Pink Depression glass for myself.  Black Amethyst Glass looks black until you hold it up to the light and then you can see that it's actually a deep purple.  Once you've realized that, then you start picking up everything that looks like black glass in flea markets and antique malls and stores to see if that's what it really is. I've found a few remarkable pieces for her that way.

My color preference in purple ink is Seedless Preserves Distress Ink and lately I've been loving it combined with Papertrey Ink's Ripe Avocado Ink and Cardstock.  I started by heat embossing the Emma Background Stamp onto a panel of white cardstock.  I did not use watercolor paper here like I usually do because the foam pads on my Mini Ink Blending Tools is well used and loved in both of these colors right now and also because I wanted pretty deep color saturation. 

Starting in the middle of the design, I blended Seedless Preserves Distress Ink onto the center of the panel and when that area was filled in, I went all around the outside of the panel with Ripe Avocado Ink from Papertrey.  I misted the panel with a little bit of Tattered Angels Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist and then some Tsukineko Sheer Sparkle Shimmer Mist and set it aside to dry while I stamped my banner greeting and die cut the butterfly.  The sentiment is from the Botanical Blocks Set by Papertrey Ink and I use it a lot. "Just a Note" is a good all around sentiment for a variety of purposes. The butterfly is from Concord & 9th's Floral and Flutter Dies and is cut from gold foil cardstock.  The outline design just works fantastically well with the outlines in the background stamp.

After my panel was completely dry, I die cut it using the second largest die from the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles. Then I cut the purple shimmer panel using the largest die in that set. I made a top folding card base from Papertrey Ink Ripe Avocado Cardstock and assembled most of this card using Kokuyo Adhesive. I used to always use this adhesive for scrapbooking but several years ago (7-10) I began not being able to find refills for it.  Since its return to the market in recent months they have not only the refills for my dispenser (the same one that I was using 10 years ago) but they also have a new dispenser that is an extra long one; 36 meters (118+ feet). The regular one has 43 feet of adhesive so it's more than twice as much on a roll.  It's also the same one that Jennifer McGuire uses since they are no longer making refills for the Stamp Runner.

I used a piece of fun foam (1/16th inch thick) on the back of the ink blended panel to pop it up just a touch from the background panel which was adhered directly to the card base. I used Scor-Tape to adhere it. I have not found a tape runner that works well when trying to apply it to fun foam. It pretty much just wastes the adhesive that you are trying to get on there. Scor-Tape works well and I have it in a few different widths but I like the 1 inch width for this purpose. Scor-Tape also tears pretty easily. It a good thing because the other day I tried using regular scissors to cut it and then remembered that is the reason I have Tim Holtz Scissors. Go ahead -- laugh, and I'll laugh with you. *Ü* It took quite a bit of Undo to get all the sticky stuff off my Fiskars Scissors! Anyhow, a strip down each side of the foam holds it in place quite securely.  I used a narrow strip of black foam tape behind the sentiment so that it would pop up just slightly but the white foam wouldn't show up behind it.  There's nothing complicated here, it's just a matter of assembly.

Thank you so much for stopping by to see my project today.  I appreciate that you took time to be here and I hope you'll come back soon.